Comments for AOL Quietly Launches One of the World's Biggest App Platforms

AOL Quietly Launches One of the World's Biggest App Platforms

2008-10-22T03:35:12Z

AOL announced the new developer site for MyAOL today to almost no fanfare, but at a time when some are declaring the Facebook platform "dead" - AOL's new platform warrants some serious attention.

The new MyAOL platform is an OpenSocial container based on the gadgets.*API, meaning developers shouldn't have to do much to get their widgets up and running on it. A fair number of MyAOL gadgets already have millions of users, so the new developer site seems like a real opportunity.

]]> The Widget-o-sphere

The new MyAOL platform enters the game at a complicated time. Widgets, little modules of content and functionality easily embedded into websites but built by 3rd parties, were supposed to be the future of the web, according to some advocates in recent years. The Facebook Platform was heralded as the widget Holy Land, but key site design decisions treated widgets poorly from the start and subsequent Facebook redesigns have banished them to near invisibility.

Defenders of the platform argue that the redesigned site just keeps really stupid apps from proliferating, making it all the more important to build widgets for actual utility. Scott Rafer, the genuinely brilliant if cynical co-founder of widget ad company Lookery, says the new Facebook is dead to him as a widget man. As a bulk-ad sales guy, Rafer's company deals in very large part with really stupid widget apps. So it goes. If your platform isn't supportive of stupid widgets, then your platform essentially doesn't support widgets at all.

MyAOL is Big

MyAOL is a good old fashioned startpage. An increasing number of AOL properties have recently started incorporating 3rd party content and moving towards a strategy of openness. AOL has a bad rap but is doing some innovative things.

The company's new platform gives third party developers access to a large group of users. How big is the AOL platform? 10 million people have installed the AOL Weather widget, 6 million have installed the Topix.net news app and there are 1 million AOL Pandora users. Those are very respectable numbers! In fact, they are much higher than almost all of the Facebook app numbers, though Facebook only exposes "active users."

The point is, it's a strange time for the much-hyped widget but the opening of the MyAOL platform represents a good opportunity. In Firefox on my Mac the site doesn't work very well, but it works well enough for millions of people. Widgets remain a promising paradigm, if only the host sites are truly comfortable promoting widget use for the long term, instead of burying 3rd party widgets and renewing their focus on in-house links.

Comment from Scott Rafer on 2008-10-23

2008-10-23T13:35:09Z

I likely deserve the cynical crack, and I hope you meant brilliantly genuine.

However, I'm not going to sign up for "If your platform isn't supportive of stupid widgets, then your platform essentially doesn't support widgets at all."

With ever fewer notable exceptions like Mobwars, What the FB Platform no longer supports is social app businesses that grow or could be profitable in a reasonable timeframe.

Comment from Ted Murphy on 2008-10-22

2008-10-23T01:52:58Z

I put a gadget together and added it. I wasn't able to adjust the size sufficiently, and the gadget seemed to only allow itself to be added to the home page.

I did something similar with blogger.com earlier today, and the process was a heck of a lot smoother and more successful.

To its credit, MyAOL did not add 20 new links to my toolbar, it did not change my homepage (oops -- let me test that -- no, FF's home page is intact), and it did not install new security software. So, all in all, I guess I'm grateful.

Comment from Ajay on 2008-10-22

2008-10-22T12:53:19Z

it's good to some other developer platforms are also available for developers

Comment from Roberto Bonini on 2008-10-22

2008-10-22T08:51:02Z

I didn't hear about it till now. AOL is still alive, but I'm not sure about the kicking part.

Comment from Steve Weis on 2008-10-22

2008-10-22T08:46:17Z

Featured gadgets: Clock. Sticky Notes. Weather. Horoscopes... Wait. Clock? A featured gadget is "Clock"?

Comment from Jeffrey McManus on 2008-10-21

2008-10-22T05:54:03Z

I'm not sure what you're asking. I'm assuming you're saying that a widget platform with 10 million users is the biggest in the world? Or do you mean 10 million installs (which is very different)? I'm honestly not even really sure what you're comparing AOL gadgets to since you don't say (or provide data for competitors' penetration).

At any rate, my guess is that Windows Vista dwarfs the AOL platform, but I'm just guessing. You're aware that every copy of Vista is an install of their widget platform, right?

I'm not trying to be pedantic, here, just asking that you be more precise when you run headlines that imply "world's biggest" whatever.

Comment from AJ BATAC (OCT 22) ♘ on 2008-10-21

2008-10-22T05:38:07Z

AOL?

Comment from April Russo on 2008-10-21

2008-10-22T05:35:33Z

Finally, after all these years, MyAOL doesn't suck any more. When I was on the official beta testing team, testing this in August 2007, it already supported Google Gadgets made for iGoogle. It was pretty easy to add them and a lot of them worked better in MyAOL than they did in iGoogle. The thing that caught my attention about MyAOL the most though, is Mgnet. It's a service similar to StumbleUpon that feeds you lists of articles based on your interests. Allows for voting and saving of items (They get added to a special folder in your AOL Bookmarks), and learns from your votes what kind of articles to feed you. (haven't figured out how stuff gets submitted though) It's a kind of "unsocial" social bookmarking. You might have to try it to understand what I mean.

Comment from Marshall Kirkpatrick on 2008-10-21

2008-10-22T05:04:40Z

Jeffrey, I would contend that any platform with so much as a single widget/app with 10 million installs is among the biggest platforms in the world. Would you disagree?

Comment from Jeffrey McManus on 2008-10-21

2008-10-22T04:55:12Z

But that's not what you said -- you said "biggest app platforms". Are you conflating the difference between application and platform, or are you narrowly defining this to mean widget platforms?

Comment from Marshall Kirkpatrick on 2008-10-21

2008-10-22T04:43:07Z

Jeffrey, 10 million installs for a single app ranks pretty high as platforms go, I think.

Comment from Jeffrey McManus on 2008-10-21

2008-10-22T04:26:11Z

10 million users makes this not even close to being one of the "world's biggest app platforms."

Comment from Ed Shaz/NextInstinct on 2008-10-21

2008-10-22T04:10:09Z

:~)) I believe you, I was just being honest. I hadn't heard till I read you. Glad I did.

Comment from don loeb on 2008-10-21

2008-10-22T04:09:07Z

happy to have them support gadgets so taht folks that develop for iGoogle now also get distribution on myAOL, etc.

Comment from Marshall Kirkpatrick on 2008-10-21

2008-10-22T04:07:40Z

well Ed, they did.

Comment from Ed Shaz/NextInstinct on 2008-10-21

2008-10-22T04:05:30Z

No.